Kendal · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Kendal workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Kendal
Kendal, the Auld Grey Town of Cumbria, is a limestone market town of around 29,600 on the edge of the Lake District, long famous for Kendal Mint Cake, snuff and the K Shoes trade.
The signature trade is food and engineering - the confectionery and snuff manufacturing, the water-turbine and precision engineering, and the paper and advanced materials - across the Mintsfeet Industrial Estate and Shap Road estates, with the bodyshops between them.
Each of those Kendal processes throws fume, dust, mist or vapour into the workplace air, and COSHH demands it is captured at source - that capture system is local exhaust ventilation, and it must be thoroughly examined and tested at least every fourteen months. We cover the lot, from the Mintsfeet Industrial Estate units to the one-bench Kendal workshops, taking capture and face-velocity readings and leaving a clear pass or remedial verdict with the hoods labelled.
By sector
If a process captures fume, dust, mist or vapour at source, that capture system is LEV - and across Kendal and the wider Cumbria it is your evidence under COSHH.
Sugar-boiling steam, confectionery-dust and fine tobacco-dust extraction across the mint-cake and snuff lines, distinctive trades of the town, where sugar dust and fine organic dust each need capture at source.
Weld-fume, casting-fume and coolant-mist extraction across the hydropower-turbine and pump engineering works, a long-standing anchor of the town, where machining and casting need capture proven.
Fibre-dust, coating-vapour and drying-fume extraction across the papermaking and advanced-materials mill on the town's edge, where the coating and drying lines need capture at source.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the Mintsfeet Industrial Estate and Shap Road units. Since the HSE's 2019 reclassification, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at Kendal bodyshops. Two-pack paints release isocyanates - the leading cause of occupational asthma - so booth airflow is examined to its design figure.
Fume-cupboard face-velocity testing for Kendal College and the Westmorland General Hospital, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Kendal
We are out under Kendal's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
A snuff and tobacco works in Kendal had a fine-dust extraction over a grinding-and-blending line pulling weak, letting fine tobacco dust drift off the mill. We measured the capture at the hood and checked the collector for leaks. It failed on the low capture and the dust breakthrough, and we specified the remedial work. Fine organic dust is both a health and a housekeeping matter, so the dust control around the mill was logged alongside the airflow.
The test
Under HSG258 a statutory LEV test is no visual once-over. For a Kendal system it has to answer three things - whether the system is sound, whether it still draws at the hood, and whether that draw holds to what it was designed to deliver.
Ductwork, hoods, filters, fans and dampers checked for damage, blockage and leakage across the Mintsfeet Industrial Estate units - the faults that quietly kill capture.
Face and capture velocities, static pressures and airflows measured at each hood with calibrated instruments - numbers, not opinion.
Readings compared to the system's commissioning figures, so drift from as-designed is caught before it becomes a failure on a Kendal line.
Where exposure is in question - a confectionery and snuff manufacturing process, say - sampling confirms whether control is actually protecting the people at the process.
The duty
The duty is written into COSHH Regulation 9: where LEV controls a hazardous substance, the employer must have it thoroughly examined and tested at least every fourteen months and keep the records for five years.
For most Kendal sites - from the Mintsfeet Industrial Estate units to the smaller workshops - the fourteen-month clock is the one that bites: miss it and the system is non-compliant the day it lapses, whatever its condition. We examine, label each hood with its status and next-due date, and issue the report an HSE inspector or your insurer will ask to see. If something fails, you get the reading, the cause and the fix - not just a red sticker.
How it runs
Full visual and structural check of every hood, duct run, filter and fan across the Kendal site.
Calibrated velocity, pressure and airflow readings at each extraction point.
A COSHH-compliant report: results against benchmark, clear pass or fail, and plain-English actions for the Kendal duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Shap Road Industrial Estate floor.
Questions
Under COSHH Regulation 9, most local exhaust ventilation needs a thorough examination and test at least every 14 months, with higher-risk processes more often. A confectionery and snuff manufacturing bay, a water-turbine and precision engineering bench and a lab fume cupboard can each sit on a different interval - we set the right one for every system.
No. LEV testing is a statutory examination of fume and dust control to COSHH and HSG258, with capture and face-velocity readings; TR19 is kitchen grease and fire risk. We do both across Kendal, but a Mintsfeet Industrial Estate fabrication shop and a Stricklandgate canopy are kept as the separate jobs they are.
Yes - the industrial estates and workshops around Mintsfeet Industrial Estate and Shap Road Industrial Estate, the university and hospital labs, and the wider Cumbria.
Yes. We plan testing around production shifts at the Mintsfeet Industrial Estate units, term-time access at the Kendal university labs, and normal hours at smaller workshops, so the examination never stops the line.
Yes. A new spray booth or fume-arm install at a Kendal workshop needs a commissioning test to prove it performs to its design figures before it goes into service - we measure it and document the baseline the 14-month clock then runs from.
A dated report to the HSG258 method, the readings taken, a pass or remedial outcome for each hood, and system labelling - the evidence a duty-holder at Mintsfeet Industrial Estate or a smaller Kendal workshop needs for their COSHH file.
Yes. Each hood is labelled with its status and next-due date, and you get the HSG258 report and system schematic for your COSHH file - the record an HSE inspector visiting a Mintsfeet Industrial Estate unit will ask to see.
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